Edward Riche play “Dedication” touring Arts and Culture Centres

The Norwester

Published: Nov 20, 2017 at 10:42 a.m.

Updated: Nov 20, 2017 at 11:15 a.m.

“Dedication” by Ed Riche is starting a tour of the province’s arts and culture centres this week. - Submitted

RCA Theatre Company opened its 2017-18 season with the world premiere of “Dedication” and the Arts and Culture Centre (ACC) is taking the production on a tour to Corner Brook, Stephenville, Grand Falls-Windsor, Gander and Labrador.

The production will also make a stop in Placentia.

Written by Edward Riche and directed by Charlie Tomlinson, the play stars David Ley as Field Marshall Douglas Haig, a First World War general who travels to St. John’s on July 1, 1924, to dedicate the National War Memorial; Allison Kelly as Geraldine Drover, a local journalist and suffragist whose interview with Haig sparks a fierce debate about the causes of the World War and its consequences, about the horrors of the past and their hopes for the future; and Edmund Stapleton as veteran Charles Edgecombe, a groom from the governor’s stables who helps Haig dress for the occasion.

“The themes of the play have more resonance now than when the writing began. It was always meant to be about more than the war and the memorial; it was about ‘the modern’. We never knew it would be about our times,” Riche said in a news release.

Though the character of Field Marshal Douglas Haig is based on a historical figure, the characters of Charles Edgecombe and Geraldine Drover are fictional.

“I wondered if there were doubters of the cause in Newfoundland of the time, and some cursory inquiry and research told me, no, everyone was behind it, were almost hungry for it. So, I invented some people who thought otherwise,” Riche said.

The tour starts on Wednesday in Corner Brook and ends Dec. 1 in Labrador City. There will be a talk-back after each performance with the cast/director. Tickets are on sale now at www.artsandculturecentre.com and local box offices.